in the near future. and i love my job at planned parenthood. i'm so proud to represent this organization. and to partner with great people in office. but thanks for good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" from new york. last night was a big victory for the american middle class, a victory for workers, a victory for progressives, and you know what, a real bad night for the billionaires. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> whether you pounded the pavement or picked up the phone. whether you held an obama sign or a romney sign, you made your voice heard. and you made a difference. >> there will be four more years for president obama, and no one can deny it. >> i think this is premature. >> tonight, the great victory for the american middle class, with e.j. dionne and richard wolffe. the secrets to victory with john nichols.

the massive win for women, with terry o'neill. the diverse coalition that won it all with annette in florida and the great nina turner in ohio. and the boots on the ground have prevailed over citizens united, with leo gehrard of the steelworkers. >> we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. we are and forever will be the united states of america. >> good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. today we're on the other side of history. last night we saw a statement election in america and it opens up a huge opportunity for democrats to move this country forward. this was the scene in chicago, the moment president obama supporters were told he secured enough electoral votes to be re-elected as the 44th president of the united states. president obama is not naive about his place in history. the victory was a repudiation of

the right wing agenda. also an affirmation of the president's vision for the country. >> what makes america exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on earth. the belief that our destiny is shared. that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and the to future generations, so that the freedom for which so many americans have fought for and died for comes with responsibilities as well as rights, and among those are love and charity and duty and patriotism. that's what makes america great. >> a little bit different than 2008, isn't it? you know, in a way, this victory was brought to you by the radical governors, who spent the last three years stumping all over the middle class in their states. there's something all of these governors have in common, i'm talking about john casey in ohio, chris christie in new jersey, rick snyder in michigan, tom corbett in pennsylvania, rick scott in florida. let's not forget bob mcdonnell

in virginia. and of course, scott walker in washington. what do they all -- sorry, wisconsin. what do they all have in common? they pursued an agenda to limit the rights of workers in their states so they could balance the budget, but also break up the unions. their agenda, last night, was rejected by the people in their state. you know what they all got in common? all of their states went blue. i guess we could say, well, thank you, governors, for defining the republican party for us. it made voting a lot easier for a lot of americans, like these voters, the radical agenda of the right was defeated by these people, the folks who were willing to stay in line, the voter who is made sure that their voices were heard. it didn't matter how long those lines were. they were determined. it didn't matter how hard the republicans tried the to suppress their votes. these americans put it on the line. and they put it together. you know what they put together? they put together a template for defeating citizens united. the democratic process was at

risk of being hijacked by the self-interests of a select group of millionaires and billionaires in this country. america's vote, we found out last night, cannot be purchased. the supreme court's citizens united ruling paved the way for unlimited outside money in this presidential election. so this was election number one, right? nearly $1 billion was spent against democrats by people like casino magnet, sheldon adelson. along with the billionaire industrials, the koch brothers, we'll never forget them. and they'll probably be back again. they outspent the democrats 3-1 and had the opportunity to define the election on their terms. the american cross roads super pac spent $300 million on advertising in swing states. they did not influence a single election outcome. and of course, this was karl rove's nightmare. it's exactly what he wanted to destroy, labor unions, and he failed. we will go back, i believe this,

that we will go back, you know, coming up in 2014 and 2016, and beyond, and we will point to this election. we now have the template, the first presidential election of citizens united in this new era of raising money and it's fallen from the sky, and we will tell ourselves as liberals and progressives, we can defeat this. this is not a center-right country. this country wants to invest in its people. and i'm talking about teachers and the president of the united states wants to invest $4 billion in education. that'll make your head spin if you're a righty. wage earners have a president who advocates for fair taxation. who wants to close the income gap in this country. that's what they voted for last night. rescue workers and other public employees. you've got a president who's going to fight for these folks, and their rights to negotiate at the table. unions stood by their workers

during these tough times, did they not? the workers stood by the elected official who will fight for them. you stand who well, you won't lose. the great american workers were the salvation of the middle class last night. this was not just an electoral college victory for the president of the united states. president obama was the popular vote winner, with more than 60 million people choosing him to go back again, despite all the negativity. he's the first democratic president since franklin roosevelt to be re-elected with more than 50% of the vote. did they report that on fox news today? probably not. the last time a president was re-elected, this is how he defined his victory. >> when you win, this is a feeling that the people have spoken and embraced your point of view. that's what i intend to tell the congress. i earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now i intend to spend it. >> did you see president obama

talking about that? maybe that's his problem, i don't know. president obama has political capital on his side right now. he told america this is how he plans to use it. >> i am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties, to meet the challenges we can only solve together. reducing our deficit, reforming our tax code, fixing our immigration system, freeing ourselves from foreign oil. we've got more work to do. >> a little bit different, isn't it? this country voted to end gridlock. voters did so with a near total rejection of the republican party in the united states senate. for three years, republicans in congress led the party of no. they had no greater agenda than defeating this president. >> our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny president obama a second term. >> oh, that goes to the archives.

mitch mcconnell failed. last night was a victory against obstruction. instead, americans picked a president who wants to spend money on what?! infrastructure? what's that? roads, bridges, green energy, efficient buildings. you know, after a decade of bloodshed and combat abroad, americans re-elected a president who ended one war and is going to end another one. america voted for social change, for the first time in the nation's history, voters approved marriage equality measures. they did it in not just one state, but three states. and in minnesota, voters rejected a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. voters across the country are in line with the president of the united states when it comes to these equal rights. these equal rights. >> for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that i think same-sex couples should be able to get married. >> so in the end, voters chose to move forward, not to go back to the failures of the past.

on a number of different issues. it was a message that president obama understood very well last night. >> i believe we can seize this future together, because we are not as divided as our politics suggest. we're not as cynical as the pundits believe. we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. we are and forever will be the united states of america. >> well said, mr. president. now, as we say on this program, let's get to work. you know, in this business, if you were emotionally connected to something you call a movement in this country, and the progressive movement is what i am emotionally connected to, there's peaks and valleys. yeah, i was upset in 2000, upset in 2004, felt great in 2006, when nancy pelosi got the gavel. felt really good in 2008, when we hired barack obama to lead this country. then there was this thing called

the midterms in 2010, and then the recall elections in wisconsin followed. so you take your lumps. last night, i don't spike the football here in the studio. i don't have to. the country has the message. we have an opportunity to break the gridlock in washington. we have this small window of opportunity. it's all about attitudes right now. do we really want to do something for this economy or do we want to play political games and stop the 32 months of private sector job growth? americans have had enough of the bickering, and we will focus on this in the coming shows. and there's going to be a heck of a battle coming up in the lame duck session of the congress on exactly how we're going to solve this fiscal cliff that everybody's talking about. it's only a cliff if we want it to be. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, was president obama's re-election a victory for the middle class? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639.

we'll bring you the results later tonight in the show. i'm joined tonight by richard wolffe and e.j. dionne, msnbc contributor, and author of the book, "our divided political heart." gentleman, great to have you with us tonight. >> thanks, ed. >> good to be with you. >> you bet. richard, you first. i called it a statement election. this means that it was a very clear message. do you agree with me on that, or how would you summarize what we went through yesterday? >> well, all elections are clear statements, especially when the result was as thumping as it was last night. and, you know, it's not just that election, it's the combination of what we saw in 2008 and last night, together. but if you drill down and look at why people chose the democratic president this time around, you see on a whole range of issues, a majority of voters clearly rejecting the litmus test that the republican party

put out there, for their own candidates in the primaries, on abortion, on raising taxes, on a whole range of subjects. when you look at -- including immigration reform, by the way. democratic principles, the democratic positions are where more than 50%, in many cases, 60%, two-thirds of the country are at. so that's a statement in and of itself. >> e.j., what kind of opportunities are presented for the middle class in the next four years? >> i think there are two things. the first is that the economy, if some bad things don't happen in europe or elsewhere, the economy ought to be on track to do quite well. we're out of the worst part of this economic mess. some economists said that mitt romney would keep that promise if he had been elected, of 12 million jobs, because the economy was already on track to produce those under obama's policies. so that's on the positive side. but i totally agree with your

analysis of the election in terms of the middle class and what economic changes the voters were looking for. obama won that industrial belt, what had been and may again be the industrial belt, from wisconsin and michigan to ohio to pennsylvania. with the votes of working people, african-american, latino, and white. and i think it's very important, when you see the effect of the auto rescue in ohio, for example, 60% of the voters in that state said it was a good thing, and they voted overwhelmingly for president obama. that's a signal of the kind of policies that people want. they don't care if it's a lot of government or a little government. they want it to work. and the auto rescue worked. >> richard, what about political capital? you heard the sound bite, how president bush handled his political capital statement. what about president obama? he's going to get some push from the left, to get some things done in a very progressive manner. >> he's getting push from people all around him.

look, i know these people really well. they have been looking forward to this moment, not just because of winning the election, the election is a means to an end. what they were looking forward to is that sense of feeling liberated. that the self-imposed restrictions, in the case of the 2010 midterms, the politically imposed restrictions will no longer be there. not to say they have untram led power, that's not the way the system works, especially when republicans are in control of the house, but they can push forward in a different way. they can take some bold positions and they can draw a lot of strength from saying the voters are with us on this. we know where this is headed, whether it's about taxes or immigration reform, or some of these bigger things that they have, only put their toe in the water on whether it's about clean energy or anything, including, you know, getting the food industry to sell healthier food to our kids. those are areas where they can push much harder. i think you'll see it much more aggressively in the first few months, and then after that,

they'll have to string this along, because political capital does get persistent very quickly in the second term. >> quickly, e.j., do these radical governors, do they cool it a little bit? message sent? what do you think? >> well, they face election in two years. and i think they heard this. i mean, the recall lost against walker, but he knew there were a lot of people against him. the union stripping law got voted down by the voters in ohio. and look, the president said, we're having this bickering in washington, you voters settle it, here's the choice, mitt romney agreed it's a big choice. the voters settled it. and that's a lot of capital on the president's side. >> all right. richard wolffe, e.j. dionne, great to have you with us on "the ed show" tonight. remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter and on facebook. we always want to know what you think. coming up, putting this very big victory into perspective. president obama now has brand-new political capital. john nichols will join me. where is the opportunity? ols... ... what should we invest in?

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coming up, the path to victory. a look at president obama's

historic re-election of john nichols. and now terry o'neill will weigh in and what's the future. and the ground game beat out big money. leo gehrard on the success of the get out to vote effort over citizens united. share your thoughts with us on facebook and on twitter using #edshow. we are coming right back. we're going to try to stump some political junkies with questions from bing elections. do you know where your polling place is? maybe somewhere around my house. mine's just, right over that way. well you can find out exactly where it is using bing elections. it's a good day for politics. which way do you lean politically? conservative. republican. well, using the bing news selector you can find news from whichever way you lean. (together) social on this side, financial. which party is currently predicted to win a majority in the senate? the republicans? would you make a bet on that? no. are you chicken?

welcome back to "the ed show." last night was clearly an historic victory for president obama. he is only the second democrat from world war ii to win a second full term and he did it against great odds.

the inside story is remarkable. jim messina, who's the mastermind, jim messina, the president's campaign manager, met with president obama six months ago to unveil a very unique strategy, according to the "wall street journal." the plan was to spend heavily, early, to define mitt romney early in the battleground states. romney would be busy trying to capture the republican nomination and would not be able to have the money to defend himself. the plan was surgical and methodical and it resonated, as an accurate portrait of a corporate raider. romney's 47% remark surfaced months later and solidified this image of romney and showed is us how he viewed the electorate. let's turn to john nichols, washington correspondent for "the nation" magazine, and author of the book "uprising." john, great to have you with us tonight and great work last night in toledo, ohio. that had to be pretty emotional. all those workers knowing that they were going to get a

successful conclusion. the obama campaign kept the romney campaign off balance for nearly the entire stretch of this campaign, or am i wrong on that? >> i think it is true, although, obviously, we had that first debate. and that was a point that was offplan, by any measure. because, remember, going into that first debate, everyone was talking about whether barack obama was going to close the deal that night. that he would, you know, sort of wipe mitt romney out. romney, in that first debate, brought himself up to credibility, and that's where the obama campaign really had to go into full force. and i have to emphasize, what i saw last night, as well as what i saw traveling around the country over the few weeks before the campaign, was the evidence of something very significant, when you talk about spending early, and investing early, that investment was not merely in tv ads, ed. it was in building an infrastructure.

and in building a relationship, working with trade unions in places like toledo, and flynt, and janesville, wisconsin, and that paid off. >> the obama campaign, i think, helped wake up people about mitt romney. for instance, in freeport, illinois, the republican congressman, bobby shilling was defeated. and we saw the romney economic model on full display and it was rejected last night. i mean, how much did that kind of a story and the outsourcing play into the decisions last night? >> it was huge. ed, you know, some of the people who won last night, not just president obama, but as you move down the ballot, were people who were all in for some of these great struggles of 2011 and 2012. tammy baldwin in wisconsin was in the capital, with the protesters. sherrod brown, in ohio, turned his campaign over to the movement in that state to overturn their anti-labor law. and so, you really saw something begin a very long time ago. and there were a lot of people who were hard-pressed, who got

engaged politically, in defense of their own labor rights a year and a half ago, and transitioned that into this campaign. now, the interesting thing that happened, in this campaign, is that mitt romney showed himself to be precisely the sort of person that they had been fighting. someone who was clearly committed to attacking unions, but also who was willing to say and do anything to win. and i cannot emphasize to you, not just in ohio, but in other states across the great industrial heartland, romney's comments saying that jeep was going to close and move to china, that scared is people? >> you heard that a lot in toledo last night? >> and it also woke a lot of people up. not just in toledo. in toledo, yes, ed, but also up in detroit. i heard it over in wisconsin. i think it's very important to realize, a lot of their lives came back and haunted them last night. remember that at the republican convention, paul ryan talked about or tried to blame president obama for the closing of the gm plant in janesville. last night, janesville voted for obama and biden over their own

hometown candidate. >> isn't that something? >> and the surrounding county voted 60% for obama and biden. >> john nichols, great to have you with us tonight. thanks so much. did the war on women cost the gop the election? president of the national organization for women, terry o'neill, weighs in on that next. then, ballots and bigotry. find out what the republicans need to understand if they want to take back the white house some day. the new political reality and americans' demographics, next. [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus presents the cold truth.

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this is what winning feels like. last night, america put a stop to an extreme right-wing agenda. we stopped planned parenthood from being defunded. we stopped roe v. wade from being overturned. we stopped health care reform from being repealed. that's a lot, isn't it? the gop's radical platform was clearly rejected and women had a major hand in making sure the clock on progress was not stopped. women were the key in ensuring a second obama term. 55% of women voted for the president. down-ballot efforts by extremist candidates were stopped. as alec baldwin put it, "you know your party's in trouble when you read this -- a, the rape guy lost, b, which one?" turns out they both did. claire mccaskill beat todd akin by 15 points.

women turned out in big numbers in support of mccaskill. in indiana, a seat that republicans were not expecting to lose, democrat joe donnelly easily beat richard mourdock. the female vote also turned out for donnelly. and while republicans play the blame game, americans should thank todd akin and richard mourdock for telling the truth for how they exposed the gop and exposed them for what they're all about. predictably, rush limbaugh lashed out at the gender gap. >> women voted obama 55-43 for romney. massive gender gap. unchanged from 2008. unmarried women backed obama 68% to 30%. they thought romney was going to take away their birth control pills.

obama treats them like vaginas and they say, he's my man. go figure. >> ah, the voice of the republican party. let's bring in terry o'neill, president of the national organization for women. terry, congratulations is in order. i know your organization put a lot into this election, because a lot was at stake. now, did the war on women cost mitt romney this election? >> there's no question that it cost him this election. and mitt romney deserved to lose, because he was right in the thick of waging this completely shameful war on women. his vice presidential pick todd -- i'm sorry, paul ryan, actually referred to rape as simply another means of conception. paul ryan doesn't think there should be any exceptions to a full criminalization of abortion and neither did mitt romney. and so, yeah, the war on women absolutely cost them this election. and, you know, i hope that the leaders of the republican party have heard the message of the voters, but i worry that they

haven't. and -- >> well, if they don't get it now, when are they going to get it? maybe never? >> maybe never. and we are going to continue to defeat them in election after election after election, until they do get it. the entire republican platform needs to change. i have never seen, honestly, such a viciously anti-woman set of policies as what is contained in republican platform. and frankly, until that changes, we'll be working to defeat candidates that uphold that kind of a platform. >> you know, even scott brown of massachusetts, considered a more mainstream republican, lost his race in that state last night. he voted for the blunt amendment and against paycheck fairness. shouldn't republicans take a hint? i mean, i hope they don't, seriously. because they're just going to be, eventually, cycle after cycle, voted out. because, i think the american people do get this, the majority do get it.

it will be a matter of time. they really do need to change, don't they? >> they really do. and i think what really helped the democrats is that the democrats were willing to talk about it. president obama talked about his support for the paycheck fairness act, which is the next step after passing lily ledbetter, that we need to do. president obama talked specifically about understanding the challenges that women face, when you work an entire lifetime at unequal pay. elizabeth warren gets that. tammy baldwin gets it. lois franklin in florida gets it. tammy duckworth in illinois. i mean, these candidates understood it and they are explicitly talking about the impact on women, of the policies that they're going to be asked to vote on, as elected officials. and the more they talk about it, the more women understood, yes, this is a candidate that i can trust. this is a candidate that i can work with. and it's interesting to me, i think the more we talk about

what is the impact on women, of these various types of policies, the better the policies will be, for sure, and the more we will begin to put elected officials in who really care about the welfare of all americans, not just one-half or a little less than one-half. >> and we now have a record number of women serving in the united states senate. that number goes to 20. a big victory last night in north dakota. unexpected, heidi hitekamp defeating rick berg. big winners, no doubt. there's a lot more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show." stay with us. >> it doesn't matter whether you're black or white or hispanic or asian or native american or young or old, or rich, or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight. you can make it here in america if you're willing to try. >> the president's historic victory last night means no more mr. white guy. coming up, ohio state senator

anita turner and miami-dade democrat annette taddeo on the new makeup of the american electorate. hi. have a nice lunch. hopefully this will improve your appetite. >> tonight, we will pay a special tribute to the worst political pundit of all-time. >> if you've been watching me on these videos and on fox news, i'm almost the only one who's been saying that romney's going to win by a landslide. and when push came to shove, boots on the ground defeated citizens united. leo gehrard of the steelworkers will tell us how it all apd. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] don't just reject convention. drown it out.

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thanks for staying with us tonight. the republicans are dealing with a new reality. last night's election came down to demographics. hispanics, latinos, blacks and asians lifted president obama to victory. their votes made the difference. in fact, when it comes to non-whites, mitt romney won by a

massive margin. this is how the race was won. whites make up 72% of the vote, most of them voted for romney. 13% of voters are black. 93% of them voted for president obama. 10% of voters are hispanic or latino. 71% of them voted for the president of the united states. romney barely cleared 25% among all of those minority groups. the face of the nation has changed dramatically, just since the last presidential election. listen to this. the u.s. census says more than half of the growth in the total population over the last ten years was due to the increase in the hispanic population in america. but the white guys in the republican party, they don't want to deal with the new demographic truth. >> white establishment is now the minority. and the voters, many of them, feel that this economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff.

you're going to see a tremendous hispanic vote for president obama. overwhelming black vote for president obama, and women will probably break president obama's way. people feel that they are entitled to things, and which candidate between the two is going to give them things? >> so out of touch. this is the emotional disconnect for the republicans. voters don't want stuff. they want a candidate who gets it. one in five voters said the quality which mattered most was the candidate cares about people like me. they voted the for president obama over romney 81 to 18. president obama made a connection with americans, not just white folks in america. that's why he won. i'm joined tonight by annette taddeo, member of the miami-dade democratic county party and also ohio state senator, nina turner. great to have both of you with us tonight. i know both of you worked tirelessly on behalf of democracy, no question about it.

nina, let me talk to you first here on this issue. how does it feel to deliver the state of ohio, knowing that the deck was stacked against you? >> it feels tremendous, ed. i am so happy, not only for the great state of ohio, but for this country. >> does it set a template on how to defeat citizens united? because if you can do it in this election, with show much money thrown against your senator, sherrod brown, the governor, of course, and the secretary of state, both republicans, what does that tell you? is this the template? >> it is, ed. and it shows that when good people get together for righteous causes, we can make a difference. you know, especially in senator sherrod brown's race, we show the republicans that money can't buy you love. >> what about the demographics in south florida, annette?

this really played big. and i said all along that, in fact, we went down there and covered this, that the bread basket of victory was going to be south florida. that they had to be a huge turnout in the latino and african-american community. and that is exactly what happened. now, the state hasn't been called yet, but how did the demographics play into this election? >> it played a huge role. and as a matter of fact, we, both african-american and hispanics, turned out in huge numbers. as of 1:00 last night, in the morning, or this morning, i should say, we were still voting in miami. i mean, people wouldn't give up. they put every obstacle against us. they reduce our voting days from 14 days to 8 days. they put so many constitutional amendments on the ballot that they thought were going to bring out the evangelicals. and guess what. we didn't pass them. so, we stood in line for a long, long time. i was there on those lines. my arms hurt from passing out water to all these people in these lines for hours. some of them, six and seven hours, waiting. but we never gave up. we stood in the lines, and we

said we're going to vote. there was one person in miami beach who was 101 years old. that was the oldest person in miami to vote. i get emotional just thinking about the fact that people just wouldn't give up. and that was a colombian american man. we had young people, a huge amount of young people that voted. we had everybody voting. it was such a colorful line, and it was very positive. >> i mean, i think this is such a message for america. in two different parts of the country, in ohio and in florida, well advertised how important these two states are, the obstacles thrown up against the people, and we have the videotape to prove it, and the results to prove it, that you can overcome. that if you have the will, if you have the determination, if you have the heart and the desire, no matter what it takes, democracy can win. now, in some strange way, senator, i know you don't like the way this all unfolded. i mean, the logistics of it, but the system works, doesn't it? >> it does, ed.

you know, republicans tried to suppress the vote, but instead they motivated the vote. and, again, we have shown that it's united we stand and divided we fall. and that guy that was talking about people want stuff, well, the stuff that people want, they want liberty and justice for all. they want to be able to live out their measure of the american dream. that is what america is all about. so if that's stuff, then have at it. >> america, i want you to look at these two ladies. this is why president obama won in florida and in ohio. their leadership, their unselfishness, their community work is exactly the remedy and the solution to defeat billionaires who think that they can own our government. nina turner, annette taddeo, great to have you with us tonight. i admire both of you and thank you for your work. thanks for being on "the ed show". >> thank you, ed. coming up, for months, dick morris predicted, what, a romney landslide? come on, he didn't to that? i don't watch fox.

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ah, that was good. too bad nobody could hear me. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. welcome back to "the ed show." we love hearing from our viewers on twitter and on our facebook page. tonight, just about everybody's talking about yesterday's election, no doubt. sage dude tweeted out, "it looks like the billionaires wasted their money trying to buy this election. the people outsmarted them." amen to that. chaplain lives says "it looks like speaker john boehner had a case of anesthesia when he spoke today, already forgetting that americans rejected romney's promise to raise revenues for the rich." and fun pundit thinks that "fox followers became insulated in their skewed data. they failed to face the will of the people." keep sharing your thoughts with us @edshow using #edshow.

still to come, dick morris predicted a romney landslide in his lunch alerts leading up to the election. he's eating some really raw crow, i'd say. had to be slow. or that printing in color had to cost a fortune. nobody said an all-in-one had to be bulky. or that you had to print from your desk. at least, nobody said it to us. introducing the business smart inkjet all-in-one series from brother. easy to use, it's the ultimate combination of speed, small size, and low-cost printing. [ husband ] transfer! [ male announcer ] free data transfer at home. you just deleted all the photos! you did! no you did! [ male announcer ] or free data transfer when you buy a windows 8 computer at staples. another way staples makes it easier to upgrade. prego?! but i've bought ragu for years.

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and we are back. you know, for weeks we've heard the right-wing noise machine tell their audience, you know, don't worry. everything's going to be okay. romney was going to win. don't pay attention to the polls. they all had their own ways of getting around the numbers. karl rove used his whiteboard, donald trump took to twitter, limbaugh was limbaugh. their narrative was, the numbers are skewed. expect a romney upset, or in the case of dick morris, a romney landslide? and no one was adamantly as wrong as dick morris. >> one idiot who writes for "newsweek" magazine actually said there was a possible obama landslide coming. my goodness. well, on friday i looked at the

real poll numbers by an organization that i can't name, but i trust it. we're going to win the senate. i think that the media is perpetrating this gigantic fraud, which is to say that romney is foot in the mouth, that he's gaffe-prone, that he keeps screwing things up, that he's trailing. >> so you are standing by your prediction of a romney landslide? >> absolutely. romney will win this election by five to ten points in the popular vote and will carry more than 300 electoral votes. >> dick, what do you think? >> we're going to win by a landslide. it will be the biggest surprise in recent american political history. >> come on, dick. tell us what that polling outfit was? is it safe to say that he is the worst political pundit ever? let's see what he had to say for himself today.

>> hi. i thought obama would be buried in a landslide. instead, i've been in a bit of a mudslide on my face, and sorry about that. i was wrong. >> just roll out of the sack there, big guy? now, why is he still smiling? because he knows no matter how many times he's completely wrong, as long as he keeps telling conservatives what they want to hear, fox news is always going to have a job for him. tonight in our survey, i asked you, was president obama's re-election a victory for the middle class? 98% of you say yes, 2% of you say no. coming up, this election was about the big money of citizens united versus what, the boots on the ground. who won? citizens united is loses big time. billionaires are looking for a refund tonight.

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>> and in the big finish tonight, this election was about boots on the ground. that's the only way they were going to be able to fight the big money of citizens united. and last night the ground game did the job for the democrats and the president. this ground game was dominated by the wage earners of america. because they saw this election as a real threat to their livelihood. these workers were up against millionaires and billionaires, like the koch brothers and sheldon adelson spending millions on super pacs to defeat president obama. but what they couldn't buy was a ground game. the united steel workers, for example. them alone had 7,000 volunteers, who knocked on over 170,000 doors, just in the past two weeks. the boots on the ground proved it's possible to fight back against this wall of money that we're seeing. this corporate money, this influence, this effort to suppress the vote. for more, let's turn to leo gehrard, president of the united steelworkers international. mr. gehrard, you don't have to

get your blood pressure up tonight. this is what winning feels like. you've won a lot of negotiations in your lifetime. did you put the "mission accomplished" banner up on the office door today? because it would be appropriate, wouldn't it? >> we had a little celebration with all of our folks and we think that it's mission accomplished. but you know what, i was pretty disheartened when i saw mitch mcconnell kind of start pretending that they had won. and you know, ed, what's really important in this election is that boots on the ground showed a number of things. and i've listed three for our people. number one, we proved that the election of barack obama wasn't a fluke in 2008, no matter how much hate they threw at him. we elected the best man. we proved that you couldn't buy the government of america with millionaires and billionaires and attack ads. we proved that you couldn't steal the votes by intimidation and voter suppression.

so all those things were done. the labor movement fought in every corner, arguing from virginia to nevada, from new hampshire to ohio. we had people on the ground. we had lawyers that were there. we had just in our case, 2,900 workplace coordinators. 18,000 visits and shift hours were done in two weeks. we did a million phone calls. that wasn't me doing that. those were ordinary people who earned a wage, who said that this was something that they wanted too. and i think it was important. our kids and our grandkids, ed, deserve at least the same shot in life as we had and that's what president obama's given us. >> i mean, you had boots on the ground, and it's all the unions. it's a plethora of them, teamsters, cwa, all of them, amalgamated, they all worked. i mean, wisconsin, michigan, ohio, wenls. can we say that labor delivered president obama a second term? >> i think labor absolutely

delivered president obama a second term, with our ground game. and i've got to say, every union did the same kind of work that we're doing. i mean, you take the union that represents bus drivers, they were talking to every person who got on and off the bus. and we use every opportunity, because it's the labor union that has direct contact every day with workers. it's the labor union that's able to organize, because we've got skilled people. we've got people who are committed. >> so is there any amount of money that can overcome this? you're never going to be able to match the money that came pouring into the super pacs. we're never going to be sure of the real number, because some of that is secret, dirty money. but they're talking about $7 billion and $8 billion being spent. you know what, we had 4,100 trained people that we trained. they're not just trained for the election yesterday, they're trained for tomorrow and the

days after tomorrow, that they know how to organize on the ground, and we'll keep organizing on the ground, because now we need to keep supporting the president. i think we made some mistakes in his first term. we didn't drive the agenda and let the teabaggers define what the issue is. we'll help americans put this president back to work. >> you've got a list of what this president needs to do. where's the political capital and where should it be spent? >> i think the first thing is jobs, jobs, jobs. we have to have another fight in america about the rights of workers to have collective bargaining. collective bargaining is one of the ways you share the wealthy in this country through negotiations. there's not a boss in america that doesn't have a contract with his board of directors. if it's good enough for the boss to have a contract, it's good enough for the workers. we've got to put everybody back to work, rebuild the infrastructure of this country, we've got to make sure every kid gets a chance to go to college and get a degree without having to mortgage their second home